Stranger Things Post-Canon AU
after being disappointed by the finale, i've been trying to cook lmao. i hope to turn this universe into a fic(s)? here are some of my ideas!
(i'll also be posting about this on my tiktok keysmashing_nerd)
Setting(s)
- starts autumn 1989, goes into the early 90s
- hawkins
- the east village in NYC
El/Jane
- she is alive! my girl gets to live and be happy
- the feds leave her alone because she lost her powers when the upside down connection was severed. it doesn’t really make sense that there would be no consequences for her killing a bunch of military but they let it go in canon for hopper so fuck it!
- regularly visits her biological mother and aunt
- joyce owns melvald’s now and el works there with her
- joyce el and hop are saving up to eventually move to montauk
- her and mike broke up between seasons 4 and 5
- she is single at the time and living her quirky little life
- film buff but for like every genre (romance, action, horror, anything)
- her and max are so locked as besties
- her friendship with mike is good, they really do care for each other
- her and will call each other frequently, they miss each other a lot. they had an emotional heart to heart when he told her he had decided to move out to NYC with Jonathan (more on that ahead)
Jonathan
- sophomore at NYU
- living in an apartment in the east village with a roommate
- i imagine him with a lesbian roommate (who I also have a lot of ideas about lol. essentially her parents are homophobic but she has a beloved younger sister that she lowkey raised and they keep in touch)
- jonathan has been planning for will to move out there with him, always wanted it
- into AIDS/queer activism
- a lot of queer friends
- chain smoker
- mark from RENT coded
Will
- spends summer of ‘89 saving up to move in with jonathan in the fall
- works at a restaurant and makes art
- the east village at the time was a hotbed of artistic creativity so he’s very engaged and has a lot of friends
- into AIDS/queer activism, makes political posters/signs/graphics for it
- gay hookup culture is not really will’s vibe personally, but he understands
- he has a couple semi-regular sexual partners, they're friends but it isn't that deep. locked in on having safe sex tho!!
- he’s very into the drag scene and while he hasn’t done it himself, he really admires the art
- i can see him doing makeup for queens and getting a reputation for being great at it. a makeup artist will arc would be beautiful I think
Mike
- hosts weekly mike/lucas/max/el movie night in his basement
- spends too much time writing DND campaigns
- working at a gas station store (or something like that). he doesn't card the teenagers buying cigarettes
- big dreams of being a fantasy writer, also got into writing a lot of poetry and short stories
- going to the county college for an associate’s degree in business to appease his parents (for the time being)
- writes and reads as much as he can
- goes to NYC for a week for a writing thing, stays with jonathan and will, gets his mind blown by the east village
- ends up moving to the village later as well. after he gets a taste of the bohemian life, he can't stop thinking about it
Max
- getting an associates in social work
- working at a daycare
- tries to buy groceries for her household as much as she can, despite her mother's protests
- max and el 🤞
- Lumax ❤️
- her friends mean the absolute world to her, that's family fr. will ALWAYS defend them to the death
- has gotten somewhat into anger management and trying to improve her emotional self-regulation, but still has a short fuse at times
Lucas
- became an EMT !! (imagine him in that uniform..)
- he clowns on mike and max for going to county college when he’s already making a lot more money than them after training
- his parents are kind of mad he didn’t go to college or go corporate, but given his trauma they understand why he wants to be in the helping field
- Lumax ❤️
- talks with max and el at length about byler. he's known there was something off with the way mike treated will for years and they're all just waiting for mike to have a gay epiphany
Dustin
- spends nearly every waking hour of school holiday breaks with his friends
- radios and calls his friends all the time (hawkins and nyc)
- a very good student, but a party animal on the weekends
- does a lot of keg stands
- the other DND nerds at school think he’s extremely badass
Joyce, Hop, Steve, Nancy, Robin are all doing well, just mostly focused on their own stuff. Steve is the plug for the ones left in hawkins since they're 19 lmfao.
let me know what you think, please share your ideas!
and tell me if i should make another post with my byler storyline ideas for this universe 👀
